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Audiofetch News & Information
May 15
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Building Community Through Hearing Assistance

By | Hearing Assistance | No Comments

A new study at Cigna reveals that loneliness is at epic proportions in the United States. The UCLA Loneliness Scale indicated that nearly half of all Americans feel alone; older adults with hearing loss feel isolated, but Gen Z is the loneliest of all. The article suggests that getting enough sleep and exercise can help combat loneliness.

The best way of dealing with loneliness is to have a sense of community. Learning, work, and friendship are important aspects of living a full life and not understanding another person’s language or having trouble hearing them creates isolation. Without language translation or hearing assistance, people tend to congregate in their own groups and this creates exclusion. However, there are many locations for community building already in place: schools, churches, senior centers, sporting events and the workplace, to name a few. The key is to create social and cultural inclusion so that everyone feels welcome and understood.

Beyond addressing loneliness, there are benefits of cultural and language inclusion. It’s been proven that children who are taught in their own language learn faster and make better grades, and companies with inclusive policies have higher earnings.

A sporting event bypasses cultural and language barriers as well as hearing impairments, and sharing a game can bond a group. Audio streaming for bars and restaurants is a great way to include everyone, no matter which team they are rooting for. Not only that, many adults do not wish to admit that they have a hearing impairment as it implies disability, so offering an audio solution that helps groups to bond can make it easier for those with hearing disabilities to feel safe to ask for what they need.

To create stronger community at church and help to overcome language barriers, the congregation can use assisted listening devices for churches to translate the entire sermon into the non-dominant language so that parishioners understand what it’s like to hear in a language that they may not fully understand. Plus, those with hearing impairments can feel more included if they are able to use an audio streaming device with earbuds so that they don’t miss a word of the service no matter what language it’s in.

We hope that you will help to address the issue of loneliness by entering into a community or creating one that will show kindness to others. If you’d like to learn more about how our audio solutions could help, contact us.

Sep 20
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3 Reasons to add AudioFetch to your College Campus

By | Uncategorized | No Comments

A college campus is a vibrant place of learning, ingenuity, and inventiveness.  The atmosphere is ripe with growth and learning, and the technology available on campus for various activities is a great opportunity to inspire students and faculty alike. An audio solution that transmits audio over wifi could be a great addition to any higher education audio-visual department and opens up some creative opportunities to enhance the experience of everyone on campus.

STUDENTS

Students work hard to become informed and expand their knowledge and skills.  They learn from books, professors, visiting lecturers, and each other. They attend multiple classes and spend long hours studying.  To unwind they sometimes look to the Student Union to share a meal, a televised sports event or an episode of South Park or Jeopardy.

One television, turned up loud enough for so many people to hear, can seem blaring to those who are more interested in talking to their friends.  For students who are studying while they eat, the noise of the television that rises and falls with the excitement of sports announcers’ voices or the music of commercials can be very distracting.  Or perhaps there are several televisions showing different programs and one can’t be heard over another, creating a cacophony of noise. And what if students with hearing disabilities just want to hear what’s on TV more clearly?

Any streaming device that transmits audio via wifi to a user’s smartphone, would be a perfect solution to manage noise levels in shared student spaces like the Student Union or dorms. Think of the peace in having an audio-streaming device that would allow students to listen to any TV through their cell phones.  Earbuds would prevent distracting anyone sitting nearby, and students could still watch together by tuning in to the same channel.

PROFESSORS

Seeking to vary the classes or impart direct knowledge, a professor might take a class of students to a museum, a play, a special lecture or a local engineering facility.  Communicating with students might be distracting to others at the museum, play, or lecture, and might be impossible in a plant, however, a personal PA system for teachers that streams audio directly to student smartphones would allow the professor to communicate with all the students over any other noise and without disturbing anyone nearby. Not only that, through direct streaming, students are more likely to hear every word of instruction through their earbuds and are less likely to be distracted or miss something vital because of ambient noise.

GUEST LECTURERS & PRESENTERS

Very often during the semester, a college will host a special visitor who might lecture on politics, environmental issues, the entertainment industry, or host a Q & A.  These special presentations are open to the public and many people from the community attend. Students attending the college or members of the community whose first language is not English are at a slight disadvantage because they might miss the nuances of the speaker.  Wouldn’t a translator be a big help? A translator could be a volunteer from the community who transmits the dialogue over streaming audio, allowing everyone to hear the lecture in their own language. Not only that, but attendees with hearing impairment could also benefit from an audio streaming device that amplifies the sound of the lecture directly into their ear buds.

CAMPUS TOURS

Walking prospective students throughout the campus, highlighting key educational and social facilities, is an excellent way to give them a feel for what life will be like and all the amenities that will be available to them. Oftentimes, campus tour guides have to shout to allow prospective students and their families to hear, or they rely on outdated and unhygienic shared devices to transmit audio. Our AudioFetch Express is better solution. Express is a wireless tour guide system, which allows attendees to listen from their own smartphones, and lets tour guides go hands-free. A useful and modern solution for any college, and one that allows for social distancing in today’s climate.

An AudioFetch education sound system that streams over wifi could solve so many on campus challenges and be a great addition to the student and community experience.  If you would like to know more about our audio streaming solutions, contact us today!

Apr 25
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AudioFetch Blog Post - Wireless Church Audio System

Offer the Miracle of Hearing to Your Church Congregation

By | Churches | No Comments

Masses of people flock to worship services to seek counseling about the things in life that challenge and worry them. People come ready to be inspired by a power greater than themselves and to interact with others on a path of positivity. Most of all, people come to be uplifted in a world that often leaves us wondering about our purpose and fated course of action.

People experience a grand portion of these services audibly: following the words of the pastor, enjoying the hymns of the choir, talking and sharing with others. Much of the appeal of being in religious spaces is felt through our ears.

Aging adults and the hearing impaired may find it disappointing not being able to fully engage in church services. What might also come as a surprise is that according to general statistics on hearing from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders about 15% of adults of all ages and backgrounds have varying degrees of hearing loss or trouble hearing. In fact, NIDCD estimated that 28.8 million adults in the U.S. might benefit from using hearing aids.

Lack of accessibility in places of worship can lead to a decline in service attendance, especially for those with aging congregations. Loss of hearing is alienating and may lead people to shy away from attending services and interacting with their community like they may have before. Offering only unaided services could lead to the negative outcome of people remaining at home to listen to services on devices like radios, television sets, computers and phones where they can adjust the volume to suit their needs.

Hearing loss can affect anyone and offering accessibility tools to individuals who might need them can set one place of worship apart from another as an open and accommodating community. Besides setting yourself apart as a hospitable place, you will be able to reach your congregations at different stages of hearing ability.

Offer the miracle of hearing with assistive listening devices for churches and help your congregations hear better.

Jan 26
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AudioFetch Blog Header - A Better Solution to Hearing Loops

A Better Solution to Hearing Loop Systems for Churches

By | Churches, Food for thought, General, Hearing Assistance | No Comments

Churches and houses of worship around the globe use inductive hearing loop technology for assistive listening, allowing their members to hear better during services. A hearing loop is a wire that hugs the perimeter of a room and is plugged into an amplifier. That amplifier creates a magnetic signal, which is then sent to the T-coil in a hearing aid, providing a clearer audio without interference.

Hearing loops have helped millions of people and are a great solution that does not require any additional devices for the listener, besides a hearing aid. But what about the people that don’t have or refuse to wear a hearing aid? And what about the business implications of installing wiring in every room?

There’s a better solution for churches and members alike. It’s wireless audio streaming. Below are four reasons that wireless audio streaming systems are better than hearing loop systems for assistive listening devices in churches:

  1. No Hearing Aid Required

Oftentimes, people don’t wear hearing aids when they should. The reasons are many:  They forgot it at home; it’s too uncomfortable to wear; it creates too much feedback; it’s too expensive to purchase; or it makes them feel old. Whatever the reasons, not wearing a hearing aid when you need one can lead to feelings of isolation and missing out on important conversations and connections.

With wireless audio streaming, all the listener needs is a smartphone or mobile device, which nearly everyone has already and never leaves home without, and headphones.

  1. No Wires, No Hassle

For businesses, the costs associated with installing wiring in every room and the time- and labor-intensive process of installing the loop wire are often prohibitive. A system that streams audio locally requires no wires, and installation involves simply plugging in the equipment, connecting to wifi and configuring channels. It really is that easy!

  1. Minimum Equipment

A single piece of equipment is required for local audio streaming systems. If you’d like expand coverage or connect with other audio sources, you can add a transmitter and receiver, but these are entirely optional.

  1. Lower Installation Cost and No Monthly Fees

Depending on the size and construction of the venue, installation of hearing loop systems can be difficult. You’ll need to pull up carpeting, tiling or baseboards (which may then need to be replaced), and metal in walls or floors can oftentimes create interference. Therefore, installation usually requires specialists, can be quite messy and takes some time.

Compare that to local audio streaming systems, which are essentially plug-and-play. And with a system like AudioFetch, you only pay for the equipment, we do not charge any recurring monthly usage fees.

Save time and money, and make it easier for your members to hear with wireless assisted listening devices for churches. Call us at 1-877-301-8639 or send a note today to learn more.

Want more tips and info on hearing assistance for churches? Check out our blog “How to Make Your Church More Accessible.”